For as long Rick Baltman (EngSci 9T2) can remember, he has wanted to be an astronaut. And while he’s still chasing that dream, his passion for aerospace has propelled his career from the red carpets of Hollywood to the launch of Apple’s iPad.
Baltman, a simulation software engineer and president of 2XL Games, has seen his work featured in films such as Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace and Pearl Harbor, and in TV ads for Apple. Millions of people have enjoyed playing his video games, like 2XL Supercross and X Games Snocross. And the seeds for his varied career were sown while he was still an undergraduate student at U of T Engineering.
“In my senior year, I worked with Professor Lloyd Reid on F-4 and F-16 fighter jet flight simulations at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS),” he said. “That experience has directed my life more than anything else. Between video games and movie special effects software, it’s all built around simulation. To this day, I can trace the roots of some of my code back to the code I wrote at UTIAS.”
Read the full story on U of T Engineering News.